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Topic: North Am Unity & End Times Rant (Read 14807 times)

Steve you will find Christ in the charity of the fellow porters who you are goading the Christ however for you is just a name that you throw around without action following it. Accusing our fellow old calender brothers that the calender is a non issue is pure arrogance in implying you know better them a large number of followers. Now Steve as you say you admire straightforwardness and if you can see a pattern in these posters responses maybe its something within yourself that you need to examine and sort out as opposed to saying that everyone but you is wrong on this matter.

Steve: I have been reviewing your posts. You seem to be a very angry man. Is anger a fruit of the spirit? Also I echo Prodramus' statements as well.

There is such a thing as justifiable anger (as in Lord Jesus driving the money changers out of the Temple). When people refuse to answer direct questions. When they make statements like: 'you are a heretic", "you have no sense of reality" , etc. without explaining themselves; when people treat clerics as if they are sinless, holy simply because they are clerics, that does make me angry. When people ignore the legalized mass slaughter of our own children by abortion (as Patriarch Bartholomew who has never made one statement on abortion in the 16 years he's been Patriarch); when people viciously attack sincere inquirers into Orthodox Christianity who are just asking questions, driving sincere seekers away from Orthodox Christianity, which I have seen repeatedly done on this website , it does make me angry.

I have never encountered , on any other Christian website, the degree of viciousness that I have encountered on this site. It isn't the majority but it's a very large minority. Why is there such a lack of love in so many "Orthodox" people ?

When you don't quote an entire statement and lift things out of context, that is not being honest.

Yes I am against both sides of the dispute: I made that very clear: "2 egomaniacs jockeying for power". They are both in the wrong. What does this have to do with Lord Jesus or the Orthodox Christian faith ?

You're right, I am clueless about Romiosini. What does that word mean ?"Ethnic" refers to your ethnicity, which has nothing to do with your spirituality.I use the term "Greek-Rite" to distinguish the Orthodox of the Greek/Byzantine Rite, the Rite of Constantinople ,from the Oriental Orthodox -- for the purpose of clarity.

Yes I am a branch theorist to a point. Lord Jesus established His Church. He did not establish a Greek Church, or a Syrian or Egyptian or Roman, etc. etc.Because He is always beyond our ideas and images of Him (He is Who He is), His Church, His Body is always beyond what we think it is. It can not be identified fully with any earthly branch. Orthodox Christianity (Greek + all the Oriental)has retained the clearest understanding of the faith. But we only can come close to this understanding if we are focused upon Lord Jesus, if we have a relationship with Him. If we don't have a closer relationship with Him, a deeper sense of Him and His love for us, a deeper love for our neighbor, a greater compassion and understanding of our neighbor now than we did a year ago--we are going in the WRONG direction.

You are an Old Calendarist Greek Orthodox , a branch that regards The Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Church of Greece and the others who adopted it, as heretical , for adopting the Gregorian calendar. To me a non-issue. Use whichever calender you want. That doesn't effect anything basic.

Tell me Anastasios--Who is Jesus to you ? I've asked you that before but you refuse to answer. You and others on this website never refer to Him; that makes me VERY UNCOMFORTABLE with you. It seems as if some of you have created a Jesus-less "Orthodoxy". That of course would not be Christian, not be Orthodox; it would be total apostacy.

By the way: you had no business adding "end times rant " to my post. That was an abuse of your authority as moderator.

Steve

Anasatsios,I just realized you are not the moderator of this thread, so I apologize for saying you had no business adding "end times rant" to my posting. It was pravoslavbob.Steve

Where do you get off adding comments to a post as in adding"End times Rant" to my post? That is an abuse of your authority as moderator of this thread. You have to distinguish your capacity as moderator and your capacity as a member of this website. If you want to comment on a post you log in as a member and comment. Steve

There is such a thing as justifiable anger (as in Lord Jesus driving the money changers out of the Temple). When people refuse to answer direct questions. When they make statements like: 'you are a heretic", "you have no sense of reality" , etc. without explaining themselves; when people treat clerics as if they are sinless, holy simply because they are clerics, that does make me angry. When people ignore the legalized mass slaughter of our own children by abortion (as Patriarch Bartholomew who has never made one statement on abortion in the 16 years he's been Patriarch); when people viciously attack sincere inquirers into Orthodox Christianity who are just asking questions, driving sincere seekers away from Orthodox Christianity, which I have seen repeatedly done on this website , it does make me angry.

I have never encountered , on any other Christian website, the degree of viciousness that I have encountered on this site. It isn't the majority but it's a very large minority. Why is there such a lack of love in so many "Orthodox" people ?

However, self-righteousness, wrathful judgment, and condemnation are all fine with you. Interesting.

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Artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl. ~Frederick the Great

I witnessed the great integrity of Anastasios and Pravoslavbob, who were accused in certain things here. They both have demonstrated that all the time. The same applies to many other participants here. We have an excellent crowd.

Steve, please just try to see that OC.net is a friendly site. Seriously. And may God help you.

For the record, while I do not agree with that part of the branch theory that promotes a view about absence of the Truth in the Holy Orthodox Church, I am also a hard core Modernist / Ecumenist / New Calendarist. But let us just not perceive a difference in opinions as a lack of integrity or as a sign of lie. That is not the case.

Steve, please just calm down and try to stay away from making judgements. As Prodromas said, Christ can be found in charity.

I think that your opening post fits either definition quite well, and so I decided to add the noun "rant" to the title, to make it more descriptive to those who may be confused about why this was in a new thread. The second half of your post has little to do with the first half, and only the first half was relevant to the North Am Unity thread, so I decided to split it off, in order to keep comments about your End Times Rant out of that other thread. I stand by my decision more resolutely after seeing how this thread has progressed (if one would really call it "progress"). If you have a problem with my decision, you should appeal it to FrChris, who oversees the work of the Global Moderators.

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"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."" Isaac Asimov

I think that your opening post fits either definition quite well, and so I decided to add the noun "rant" to the title, to make it more descriptive to those who may be confused about why this was in a new thread. The second half of your post has little to do with the first half, and only the first half was relevant to the North Am Unity thread, so I decided to split it off, in order to keep comments about your End Times Rant out of that other thread. I stand by my decision more resolutely after seeing how this thread has progressed (if one would really call it "progress"). If you have a problem with my decision, you should appeal it to FrChris, who oversees the work of the Global Moderators.

You clearly do not understand what a moderator is, nor the difference between being a moderator and being a member of this website--you have 2 hats and you're confusing them.. You may not add your comments to someone else's post. You may comment on the post as member.I will take this up with Father Chris.Steve

You clearly do not understand what a moderator is, nor the difference between being a moderator and being a member of this website--you have 2 hats and you're confusing them.. You may not add your comments to someone else's post. You may comment on the post as member.I will take this up with Father Chris.Steve

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah....

He kept your post intact so we could all endure your nonsensical dribble about the coming armageddon (you don't really believe that gibberish? do you?)...all he changed was the title so we had a fair warning about what to expect, plus since he split it off he had to come up with some title and his was a lot more polite than mine would have been if I got to choose it.

You clearly do not understand what a moderator is, nor the difference between being a moderator and being a member of this website--you have 2 hats and you're confusing them.. You may not add your comments to someone else's post. You may comment on the post as member.

Au contraire, I don't think I've confused any roles, I think I applied an appropriate adjective to the title of the thread - and thank you for letting me know that I don't know the difference between being a moderator and a member - I've only been a moderator here for a few years, and it's a shame to find out I've been doing it wrong all this time!

"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."" Isaac Asimov

The only way to Orthodox Christian unity is to ignore jurisdictional disputes by focusing on the ONLY Head of the Church--Lord Jesus Christ, our God and Savuiour.I am personally sick to death of the egomaniacal jockeying for power of both Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and Patriarch Alexis of Moscow. This is doing great harm to the Orthodox Church. Neither is a man I admire or look to for spiritual guidance.I accept any jurisdiction that professes the Orthodox Christian faith in the Three-in-One (Trinity): Father-Lord Jesus Christ-Holy Spirit, that acknowledges Lord Jesus as the ONLY Head of His Church, God the Son become Man, crucified for and by our evil (our hatred of LOVE/God and of each other), atoning for our sins, cleansing us; reuniting His soul and body in His glorious Resurrection, restoring His human nature to the original pre-fallen state, restoring our human nature in His; ascending into Father, deifying His human nature, deifying our human nature in His, sending Holy Spirit into us to make us partakers of His Divine-Human nature, partakers of His cleansing, restoration and deification of our human natures. The faith of the Nicene Creed. I accept any jurisdiction that emphasizes love above all, that rejects hatred in any form: abortion, abuse, prejudice, pride, greed, lust, nationalism, racism; that acknowledges the Divine Image in each human person from the beginning,-conception.

I make no distinction between Greek/Byzantine Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox.The Oriental Orthodox churches were not , as Churches, ever monophysitic.As far as the Patriarchate of Kiev is concerned: no it isn't kosher for a Church to make itself a a patriarchate; but it's also not kosher for a Church to make itself autocephalous as the Russian Church did in 1463 and the Church of Greece did in 1833. Both initially rejected by the Patriarchs of Constantinople (Istanbul) but later accepted by them. There is no real difference between a patriarch and an archbishop of an autocephalous church.

The human race is in a very serious state. All Christians are dealing with militant atheism, militant Islam and occultism ( which has become incredibly widespread in the past 40 years). We are all dealing with satanic child-hatred: abortion, abuse, abandonment, neglect, people who put themselves before their children, people who spoil their children (a form of abuse usually not recognized as such), people who actually worship their children (turning them into raving egomaniacs).

Focus on what is important, ignore the picky stuff. Don't discount devout Roman Catholics and Evangelicals; cooperate where you can with them and with other sincere seekers of truth.

We are clearly at the end of the end of the End Times. When people have reached the point of hating their own children we're there; when people have reached the point where they openly mock and blaspheme Lord Jesus, even to the point of mocking His suffering and death for us, we're clearly there. When those who call themselves Christians are denying Him in their own churches (the Great Apostacy which is running through every Christian body on earth and has completely dominated many ), we're clearly there . I seriously doubt we have 20 years to Lord Jesus' manifestation in glory, when He will re-unite the dead with their bodies, show forth the general judgement, leave the haters of Love -the evil- to the outer darkness they have chosen, and create a new universe where Love is all in all.

Amen ! Come Lord Jesus.Steve

Steve:

What makes you think we are living in "end times"? The Apostles themselves thought they were living in the "last days", and some fully expected Christ to return in their lifetime.....

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Suddenly the Judge shall come, and the deeds of each shall be revealed, but with fear we cry out in the middle of the night, Holy, Holy, Holy art thou o God, Thru the prayers of the Theotokos have mercy on us and save us!

While your question makes sense, I do have to let out a huge uncomfortable *sigh* for your resurrecting this thread... While it's better to resurrect old threads than start new ones in most cases, this discussion was essentially a run-around-in-a-circle attempting to convince someone who wasn't listening that their points were wrong...

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"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."" Isaac Asimov

While your question makes sense, I do have to let out a huge uncomfortable *sigh* for your resurrecting this thread... While it's better to resurrect old threads than start new ones in most cases, this discussion was essentially a run-around-in-a-circle attempting to convince someone who wasn't listening that their points were wrong...

Could you send me a pm on the subject? I don't want to stir up a mess...

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Suddenly the Judge shall come, and the deeds of each shall be revealed, but with fear we cry out in the middle of the night, Holy, Holy, Holy art thou o God, Thru the prayers of the Theotokos have mercy on us and save us!

While your question makes sense, I do have to let out a huge uncomfortable *sigh* for your resurrecting this thread... While it's better to resurrect old threads than start new ones in most cases, this discussion was essentially a run-around-in-a-circle attempting to convince someone who wasn't listening that their points were wrong...

Could you send me a pm on the subject? I don't want to stir up a mess...

I'm sure you can get the picture by seeing the dialogue in this thread... I don't want to tempt myself or you with any other thoughts or opinions which may be hurtful to a fellow member.

Logged

"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."" Isaac Asimov